Hermes vs Athena

Recap

I spent a great night last night with the teams that came out to Joxer’s to do some karaoke. When you’re injured and can’t play, it’s great to get to do things like that. I miss playing. But I’m so pumped every night I get to hang out with peeps at the bar after.

Klepto and Kumbha were there. They rocked the mic. And I learned some fun knowledge. I learned where Klepto falls on the Kinsey scale, which is always good information to have.

And we got to play some “7 on the Line”. They’ll explain:

Here’s Klepto:

There needs to be a way that all the Summer League teams play on Wednesday night. Either that, or we convince Joxer’s to have karaoke night every single night.

Haven’t done anything at work this morning. Have taken a couple Buzzfeed quizzes and lied to my boss. “Did you get blah blah blah done?” “Not yet, but I’m really really close to finishing.”

So last night was my first Summer League game of mine that went into OT!

A very epic ending too—it’s 16-16, we were on the line and one bank of lights goes out, but Julia roars, “I THINK WE CAN ALL AGREE THAT WE ARE PLAYING THIS POINT,” so we do.

My herms are working the disc up the field and everything is looking great. We get to the 2 yd line and my heart is hammering. Julia has the disc, I make an open upline cut, but Julia instead makes a stall 4 HAMMER. I literally scream, but then I turn around the disc is dropping neatly into Spencer’s beautiful hands. 17-16, truly a wild ride.

Highlights:

Like us, it seems like Athena is going through some growing pains, learning how to play together, because honestly, they have a very talented group of players. I don’t know names very well, but that dude Claw was absolutely roasting our guys the whole night. Super fast, smart cutter, lost track of how many hucks he pulled down from the clouds. Jonny Lam was also kicking ass out there, very good value pick.

Ace is hard to guard, but has such a great energy, a really contagious smile. Met Zion for the first time too, another lovely person. She won me over when she insisted that me, Claw, and Ace post-game shotgun with her.

Jenny Norris was an amazing sub for us last night, had a layout D catch that was nearly a Callahan, hustled hard the whole night.

We welcomed Camden Bickel to the mix for the first time! Admittedly, drafted him because he has a handsome beard, but he also proved he can play ultimate, had several awesome D’s.

Everyone else played well too, but I feel like I give them love all the time and I’d rather move on to the Joxer’s part of the night.

Joxer’s highlights:

Chronos also played tonight at JAMS and continued to challenge Hermes on being the best bar team. Castro was slaying the karaoke game, started the night off with a passionate rendition of “Jumper,” by Third Eye Blind.

Andy Bandit was there and he seduced the crowd with a very sensual version of “Sunday Morning.” I asked Erin what Andy’s favorite karaoke song was and she was like, “Honestly, there’s just so many.”
Robin Sargan sang something, but I don’t know what it was because I was just so distracted by his biceps and beautiful man-bun. Andy and I agreed, definite #ManCandy
Tat and Mia strengthening their bid for LAout’s cutest new couple, sang “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart. Tat was out of the bag, brought Four Loko in a hydroflask. I knew she was feeling herself when she solo sang “Everytime We Touch.”

Me, Cortez, and Julia sang “All I Want For Christmas Is You,”—I’ll be real, we were terrible.

Fun fact—I added Cortez on Facebook THREE YEARS AGO, and she still hasn’t accepted my request. Confronted her at the bar and she showed me her Facebook friend request box and it is filled to the brim with poor souls who are unworthy of her friendship. She had her thumb hovering over the accept button by name, but we got distracted and alas, we are still not Facebook friends.

After an intense discussion with Dan and Andy about our “starting 7,” USC crew closed out the bar as usual. But before we left, Spaz promised Hermes he would host a team party at his house. I think he thought I would forget, but I absolutely did not.

Email from Noodle this morning: “I had such fomo and yet relief while watching the karaoke snapchats.” Lug bb, very fun night, but you also made a smart, sane person call going home to Long Beach.

Okay, going to actually get some work done now so I don’t get fired. See you all next week!

Also a note on the power rankings: If Baby Carey ends up being humble, we’ll know that it came from mom’s genes. I’m just messing with you, Alex. You’re going to be an awesome, dorky ultimate dad and I like the confidence in your team. Just know that we’re confident in our team too and hope to see you at the tournament!

Oh, c’mon Cortez. Friend the girl. Don’t leave her hanging.

First universe point of the year. Hopefully not the last. Nothing like universe.

Good point about having all games on Wednesday. Next year I’m gonna ask to get as many games on Wednesday as possible. Sorry in advance to people who have scheduling problems on Wednesdays.

And yeah, Tattoo and Crunch are strong early contenders for Cutest Couple of the Year. There’s a few good options already, and I’m anxious to see who else gets together before the end of the year. Don’t be shy single people. Start hooking up with each other.

Next up is Kumbha, and now that I’ve read her recap, I will have to intro the “7 on the line” game. It’s quite simple. Who are the 7 people in LA Ultimate you most want to get busy with? Or who are the hottest 7? I usually leave it to interpretation. The rules are, only people in LA. And everyone is single and available in this game. The more advanced version is you have to come up with three handlers, two mids and two deeps, but for last night, we just did the basic version. And here’s Kumbha:

Okay, so here we are. I just was locked out of my apartment for half an hour… I volunteered to heLp the nice british soul carry my desk she was buying down stairs, and then i forgot my keys. last time i help anyone. anyway, so summer league night was a blur – a fun blur.

i drank too much of that sweet apple four loko, i had some delightful coronas, and a shot of god knows what that luckily wasnt $9. Thank you to whoever bought it… because i didn’t pay for it.

ill start with frisbee, then end with the bar. we played the pale blue team, that had an owl on their jersey. i actually dont know too many people on that team… i know claw, and i wanted him to draft but we werent able to as he was swiped the round before we chose, ace and zion are my good friends, and i could put a few names to faces, but beyond that this was a team i didnt know much about. the game started with jeni kwok hugging me from behind, ill be honest. i thought it was a mistake as i had never met her before, and im lowkey terrified of people behind me… always sit in the corner of a restaurant where you can see the kitchen and the door, i also am more of a big spoon kind of person. anyway. so jenny hugs me, i ate one of her lil peaches, and then promptly dropped it on the turf, so i got another one. i also ate two nut brownies before playing, and was winded during the first point.

so anyway, we start playing frisbee, we have a killer line out there, i think our top 4 guy picks and our top 3 lady picks, were starting on O, and we call to use the double point power. now i was so hyped, up until then athena claims me for their team! so i jog over to our enemies, and don a light blue jersey, and face off against my teams best. luckily, hermes scored with no turns, so i wouldnt have to decide whether i should be spiritied and not be a dick and play well for athena, or tank the point to let my team score. i think they thought i tanked the point D wise… but they must not know me… because in summer league i do not play good defense. so were up 2-0, and then they break us twice, and then everything is right in the world, no powers exist anymore, and were on serve.

the game is super close the whole time, as the final score reflects— hermes was having some trouble with our ho stack flow – so we eventually switched to vert and it worked much better for us. anyway were trading and trading, we break they break, its all good. at some point we are down 12-10. yikes. im starting to sweat, well more than the game. IT WAS SO HUMID. anyway, its 12-13…. we tie it at 14s. we acknowledge win by 2, hard at 17. im ready to play. i forgot what happens after this… its tied at 16s, and were on the line… and one bank of lights go out. now this rule i do know – you can continue playing so long as agreed upon beforehand by the captains… so the lights go out… we hadnt discussed this before because ive actually never had lights go out on me at summer league – then someone on my own team… goes “we should stop playing” i told them no, mainly because it was matt – then the other team pulls it anyway and we commence. we work it down the field, ive got the disc on the endzone line… im on the “dark side” so everywhere i look people are backlit. i cant see anything. i spot spencers beautiful face… and we make eye contact. a soul searching eye contact. he points over his back shoulder and starts to drop step… so naturally i hammer it because i have no self control and he catches it and thats game.

after the game. jeni kwok awarded me and spencer a crown for our play. we awarded zion and claw beers to shotgun. it was awesome. a lady on their team in teal shorts (sorry i dont know your name) made DANK banana bread it was so fucking good. all around it was a really fun game – there were a couple of contested calls, but i had such a god time at the bar last night i wont call anyone out.

notable things that happened in the game… jenny norris threw 2 goal line turnovers, but then proceeded to layout catch D on the endzone line, a mere 5 feet from being a callahan, and it was so beautiful, and i think i fell in love (referenced below). Jason “Claw” Lee may be the fastest mother fucker ive ever seen. i watched him and other young spry people on my team take off deep at the same time in stride, and he got there 10 yards ahead of them. painful to watch but also awe inspiring. cant teach those genetics. klepto, sober and frankie have amazing handler movement. its amazing. never have i seen three handlers move the disc the entire way down the field so eloquently. i was told kodomo got hurt at pod yesterday… yeah right he was tooling on us that entire game in the deep and under space… not even a sign of a limp. johnny lam had a massive layout D… i screamed. ive never heard anyone sideline like jeni kwok since i used to play with zazu. really took me back in time. camden bickel shows up, fresh outta god knows where – i had previously scouted him via this girl on my potlatch team. we chose him because hes young and cute but he also is good at frisbee… so thats a plus. i love our team. honestly i can genuinely say this is the hermest summer league team i have ever been on in as good a way as possible. no one on our team is normal. literally no one. we have such a fucking fun groupme and bar and attendance presence (minus some of you young boys) and its amazing.

heres my 7… andy can chose whether or not to intro this or not. unclear if Klepto is going to publish her 7

unfortunately athena was only represented by ace and zion at the bar… where was everyone else!!! but chronos was there my bbs and maybe a few people from another team? but not sure because too many people raging for karaoke night.

strong performances by castro, robin, andy motherfucking bandit, some nice duos/trios mainly jean cortez and i bringing holiday cheer with our golden voices, a tat and mia duet that i signed them up for, a tat solo… she was 100% feeling herself but i was fist pumping to it, an unlikely dan and cortez duet that was a bit lackluster and turned into a group singalong, tidal singing some zac brown band to close out our night, and ace and zion channelling their broken hearted selves. spaz also donned a light up sparkle jacket that was lit. literally lit, it was lighted. sad that viv and max left before their song came on… that sign up list was LONG. matt burke literally screamed his song… i have never heard him speak at such volumes… it was amazing and i of course filmed the entire thing.

anyway, i forget if anything else happened, if it did just say so or something. joxers karaoke lived up to my expectations, i just wish i didnt have potlatch plague so i could have attempted to hit more of the high notes. catch yall next week when we play our homies steph and nate on thursday!
also max alto gave me a literal heart attack on one disc read.. he caught its cause its fine. but jesus what a roller coaster of emotions. also vivian wasnt bleeding this game thank god, but claw was bleeding everywhere and i was not tryna catch his blood diseases, so i made him put a bandaid on. i tried to put this above in the recap but my trackpad doesnt work on my laptop so here it is now. okay bye foreal

Note, I was somewhat drunk when I sang that, which explains my really close interaction with the camera.

You don’t like back hugs? I’m torn on back hugs. That’s it own poll. Back hugs? Good or bad? I mean, they’re not bad. But are they truly good?

I know Buster would’ve made it out from Athena if she was at the game, but she wasn’t there.

And she’s correct on that light rule. It can be decided on in advance to play through a missing bank of lights if both teams agree. Always best to decide that stuff in advance, since it’s almost always going to be the team behind by a point who wants to keep going, and the team that’s ahead by a point talking about safety.

Oh, also, half time score anyone?

Oh, almost forgot. Post script note. One point for gender equity. Did you notice Athena pulled Kumbha off the field instead of a guy? First time that’s happened that a woman was pulled off the line for the Prometheus power. Holla to that!

Details

Date

Time

Competition

Season

July 12, 2017

8:00 pm

Summer League

2017

Venue

Results

We absolutely did not have our top 4 men on the first point because #11 was in. The top three of both genders were on the line iirc and no other guy seemed interested. Frankie would’ve been great but he maybe wasn’t there yet? Anyway I knew Klepto really wanted 7 so we could call dibs on the power asap (groans from other team confirmed this was the preferred power) and I knew with the other 6 we had I could slot myself into far break side in the ho stack and we’d be fine.

Pretty sure it was 8-7 Hermes at the half.

Also I feel bad for calling a violation on a restart. I saw it in the corner of my eye and it seemed pretty blatant but the sideline reacted to the call, so I checked with Klepto after and she said the lady I called it on is new. So I’m making an example of myself for the community here to say I gotta do better to pay attention and look out for new female players in particular. For many reasons but most will agree that’s a demographic we want to see grow in the sport, not feel discouraged, especially by male players’ calls.